Long Beach Water Department wins green award

The Long Beach Water Department has won Los Angeles County's Green Leadership Award for a program that subsidizes replacing lawns with drought-tolerant landscapes, it was announced Tuesday.

The Lawn-to-Garden program began two years ago and has helped transform lawns at about 600 homes in the city. Long Beach has approximately 60,000 single-family homes.

Roughly half of all residential water is used outdoors, according to the Water Department.

"We believe there is still so much that can be achieved through this program," said Kevin Wattier, the department's general manager.

"Water conservation remains by far the cheapest source of water and it just makes sense that these kinds of cost-effective solutions for addressing our water supply situation are sought out and implemented."

The program is funded through a partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The Water Department is holding its first annual Lawn-to-Garden tour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 19 th. The self-guided tour is free and features 30 homes that have participated in the lawn program.